The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1887-01-13
HENDERSON. n. c.. THURSDAY. JANUARY 49, 1887.

| full payment tor four years sacrifice
what does he finds when, having
followed the battle stained eros.
against overwhelming odds, dreadine
| death not halfso much as surrender
he reaches the home he left so pros
porous and beautiful He finds hi:
house in ruins, his farm devastated
his slaves free, his stock killed, hi:
barns empty, his trade destroyed, hi:
money worthless, his social system
feudal in its magnihcence, swept away
his people without law or legal status
his comrades slain, and the burdens OF
others heavy on his shoulders. Crushed
by defeat his very traditions are gone.
Without money, credit, employment:
material, or training-and, beside all
| this, confronted with the gravest
problem that ever met human intel
ligence-the establishing of status
for the vast body of his liberated
slaves.
FROM APRIL TO JUNE.
What does he do--this man in gray
with heart OF gold2 Does he sit down
in sullenness and despair? Not for a
day. Surely God, who had stripped
him of his prosperity, inspired him in
his adversely. AS ruin was never
before SO overwhelming, never was
restoration swifter. The soldier STEP
ped from the trenches into the furrow;
horses that had charged federal guns
marched before the plow, and fields
that ran red with human blood in April
were green with the harvest in June;
women reared in luxury cut up their
dresses and made breeches for their
husbands, and, with a patience and
heroism that fit women always as a
garment gave their hands to work.
There was little bitterness in all this.
Cheerfulness and frankness prevailed.
"Bill Arp" struck the keynote when
he said: "Well, l killed as many Of
them as they did of me, and now I
am going to work" Laughter and
applause.l Or the soldier, returning
home after defeat and roasting some
corn on the roadside who made the
remark to his comrades: "You may
leave the south if you want to, but l
am going to Sandersville, kiss my
wife and raise crop, and if the
yankees fool with me any more I will
whip 'em again" Renewed applause. ]
l want to say to General Sherman
who is considered an able man in our
parts, though some people think he is
a kind of careless man about fire
that from the ashes he left us in 1864
we have raised a brave and beautiful
city; that somehow or other we have
caught the sunshine in the bricks and
mortar of our homes and have builded
therein not one ignoble prejudice or
memory. [Applause.l
1t is impossible to describe the
scene that witnessed the delivery of
this. AS the audience began to
understand what the campaign was to
be, that the confederate, returning to
his ruined home was to stand in con-
trast with DR.. Talmage's picture of
the union armies, return, the interest
deepened, and cries of"good," "good, !"
encouraged the speaker. The allu-
sions to the gray soldiers heroism,
provoked ringing cheers, and when the
speaker dwelt on the bravery with
which he took up his hopeless and
unaccustomed work, the audience
again arose to its feet, and three times
three cheers were given with vim
that made the roof shake.
THE WORK ACCOMPLISHED.
The speaker hurried on to a sum-
mary of what the South had accom-
plished under the lead of her returned
soldiers, of which the following is a
scanty account:
sBut what is the sum of our work.
We have found out that in the general
summing up the free negro lie counts
more than he did IS slave. We
have planted the schoolhouse on the
hilltop and made it free to white and
black. We have sowed towns and
cities in the place Of theories and put
business above politics. [Applause.
We have challenged your spinners in
Massachusetts, and your ironmakers in
Pennsylvania. We have learned that
the $40, 900 900 annually received
from our cotton crop will make US
rich, then the supplies that make il
are home raised. We have reduced
/ the commercial rate of interest from
"a to 6 per cent. aud are floating 4
per cent bonds. We have learned
that one northern immigration Is
worth City foreigners, and have
smoothed the path to southwark
; wiped out the place where Mason anC
Dixon's line used to be, and hung oul
latchstring to you and yours. Pro
longed cheers.] We have reached th'
point that marks perfect harmony il
every household, when the HUSBAND
confesse that the pics which bis Wit
cooks are as good as those his mothe
used to bake; and we admit that tn
sun shines as brightly and the moo1
as softly as it did "before the war.
ELaughter.1 We have established
thrift in city and country. We hav
fallen in love with work. We hav
! restored comfort to homes from whiC